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Pakistan: The Jackals Rule

Program #BHUF003.
Recorded in Seattle, WA
on October 02, 2010.

Pakistan has received billions in U.S. aid. Where is that money? Much of it has gone missing. The jackals rule in Pakistan. A series of venal military and civilian leaders have devastated and looted the country. Historically, the U.S. has used Pakistan as a strategic asset. Its backing of fundamentalist dictator Zia ul-Haq had disastrous consequences. It was General Zia who greatly expanded Islamic law and religious schools. And he was a conduit for arming the mujahideen. Pakistan's current head of state is Asif Ali Zardari, who was married to Benazir Bhutto. Zardari was touring London and Paris and staying at $11,000 a night hotels while much of his country was under water during catastrophic floods. Zardari is deeply unpopular and his regime teeters between the ineffectual and the criminal.

Speaker(s):

Fatima Bhutto published her first book, Whispers of the Desert, a collection of poetry, when she was 15. An independent journalist, her articles appear in the New Statesman, the Guardian, and CounterPunch. She is the author of Songs of Blood and Sword.